


sleep through your alarms

by castanedas



Series: valeyne bs [1]
Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: M/M, Suicide, idk im sad and bitter i hate gotham, self hatred
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-04-08
Packaged: 2019-04-20 09:41:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14258214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/castanedas/pseuds/castanedas
Summary: jerome valeska was dead, and this time for good. bruce wayne wasn’t sure he could hold on anymore.





	sleep through your alarms

jerome valeska was dead, this time for good. 

anyone would’ve celebrated, to finally be rid of the maniac. anyone except bruce. 

he’d seen it happen. he’d seen the redhead on the top of a tall building, running from jim. he’d  
expected an elaborate escape plan. he hadn’t expected jerome to fall back, arms out. 

they were ruling it as a suicide, yes, but everyone assumed it was because the psycho was expecting to be brought back again, or for someone to save him. they weren’t sure, everyone was conflicted. some people even said he was shot and fell back. 

bruce knew it was all bullshit. the only person other than him that knew that too was alfred, but every time the butler tried to comfort the billionaire, bruce would leave without saying anything. 

jerome valeska was dead and this time for good. he wasn’t coming back. not for his dearest bruce, not for jeremiah, not even to carry out more maddening plans. 

jerome valeska was dead for good and it wasn’t an accident. he fell because he wanted to, he fell because he wanted to die. 

he was a psychopath, not a sociopath. and every time he’d dropped by the manor since breaking out of arkham, bruce has noticed his mood worsening. he was laughing, yes, but not enough. not his genuinely humoured laughs. just the sickening, bitter ones. 

and bruce felt like he was falling beside him but their fingers wouldn’t quite touch and jerome was falling just a little bit faster than he was. whilst he glided to safety, the other did not. and now he was gone. 

—

“he hurt you, didn’t he?” bruce had whispered into the silence the night before, curled into the redheads lap, whose fingers were digging deep into the soft skin of the billionaires waist. 

“who?” 

“xander. or… jeremiah.” 

jerome hadn’t moved at that. not psychically, no. but the little snake had turned everyone jerome had against him, viciously with lies and curses and there was nothing he could do. first it was zack, then his mother, then the whole circus that he once cared for like family. he had no one, until wayne. 

“the little snake hurt everyone.” jerome snickered, but it was way too close to a sneer. bruce shivered, pushing his face into jerome's chest further. 

“he hurt you.”

“he lied.” jerome spat, making bruce jolt in slight fear, his head shooting up, body nearly falling out of the chair. the redheads hands circled him completely, holding him in place. he looked mad, but bruce wanted to hug him. 

// “nobody ever helped me.” //

“he made them do it, didn’t he?” bruce whispered, noticing jerome's eyes moving everywhere except him. “he did.” the brunette placed a hand where his head previously was, just over the ‘maniacs’ heart. jerome's breathing sped up and his faced changes from anger to sadness. bruce felt his heart break.

not once in his life growing up in gotham had bruce seen even a petty criminal so vulnerable, let alone probably gotham's most wanted criminal. let alone, to him, bruce wayne, the billionaire brat. to him, the boy who said criminal had kidnapped twice. 

their extremely damaged and rocky path to friendship wasn’t something bruce even nearly priced himself on, but jerome trusted him. he was showing vulnerability, and seriousness, two things that did not associate with jerome valeska.

“don’t kill him.” he whispered desperately, feeling tears prick at his own eyes, despite there being nothing first hand sad to him. jerome laughed at that, his lip curled in hatred. “please… let…” bruce closed his eyes, his hands tightening and curling in jeromes shirt. “let me do it, if i have to.” 

jerome was the one to flinch now. “no.” he stated forcefully, bruces eyes blinking open. now jerome looked genuinely angry. “no way. he’s going to die, not by you. you can’t end up like me.”

“jero-“

“no.” he dug his fingers harder into the billionaires sides, who winced slightly at the pressure that would for sure create bruises. sometimes jerome got like that, but hey, that’s what you get for being in a relationship with a serial killer. 

“be careful.” bruce whispered miserably, collapsing against the redhead. he circled his head back into jeromes chest, and felt the other tuck his face into his hair. 

“i wish i was dead.” jerome whispered after forty minutes of silence. by the evened out breathing of the brunette on his lap, he assumed bruce was asleep. he was wrong. “i wish i was dead and the worst part is that no one knows.”

—

that whole conversation felt like years ago. bruce couldn’t even grasp his fingers onto the energy to breathe properly, his fingers slipping and grabbing at it frantically. he’d been like that since he’d watched it happen. since he’d watched jerome fall, himself. 

he wasn’t coming back, and bruce had to live with that. forever.

**Author's Note:**

> hi, i know this is sad. BUT an hour or two ago jokervidz on instagram posted moderately ‘sad’ edit of jerome to the song ‘sleep thru ur alarms’ and i can’t fully comprehend that gotham have done jerome so dirty, and im forever going to miss him.


End file.
